As engineering students in our final year of university, it was time to tackle a real-time project. One of us is a drummer, and we're all too familiar with the challenges of trying to practice in student accommodations, where space is limited, or in residential apartments, where noise can quickly become an issue. So, we came up with a solution: remove the hits and remove the noise. Sounds a bit strange, we know—but trust us, we’re engineers.
Aims and objectives
Our goal is to develop a pair of drumsticks that can be used anywhere, without disturbing anyone nearby.
Our first and primary objective is to implement real-time hit detection. We define a "hit" as a moment when the tip of the drumstick experiences sharp acceleration downwards. To detect this, we’ll use an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) and apply an acceleration threshold to distinguish between casual motion and an intentional strike. Another one of our objectives is to modulate the volume based on strike intensity
We also have additional ideas, like generating different sounds based on the position of the drumsticks. To achieve this, we plan to track the tips of the sticks using a camera, placed either on the floor or in front of the drummer. For now, though, our priority is getting the core features working reliably.
Components
The core components of this project include a Raspberry Pi, which acts as the brain of the operation; two IMUs—one for each drumstick—to measure acceleration; and speakers (with the option to plug in headphones if you really need to make no noise at all). For position tracking of the tips, a camera is required.
We’re grateful to RS Components for helping us source the necessary hardware.
Of course, we also needed drumsticks—but since the IMUs must be securely mounted, we opted not to use standard ones. Instead, we designed and 3D-printed custom drumstick shells, allowing us to neatly house the IMUs and guide the wiring inside them.
Challenges and solutions
Although the project is still a work in progress, we’ve already reached some key milestones. We successfully 3D-printed the custom drumsticks, and hit detection is up and running.
Throughout this process, we encountered a few challenges (actually, we encountered many challenges, but here we will keep it brief). One of the biggest hurdles was getting hit detection to work reliably—it turned out to be more difficult than expected. Then, when the frequency of hits was high, the sound associated with each hit would not finish playing before the other ones started. The good news? That has now been fixed, and once we got it working on one stick, it was much easier to replicate on the other.
For now, in order to have different sounds, we have implemented directional hit detection: different sounds are triggered depending on the direction in which the stick is swung. If you are curious to see how playing like this looks like, check out our social media.
Conclusions and future outlook
This project has come as a great opportunity for us to combine our engineering skills with a real-world challenge, making drumming accessible in noise-sensitive and space-limited environments. From 3D printing drumsticks to developing hit detection, we've laid a strong foundation. While there’s still work to be done, we’re proud of the progress so far and excited about what’s to come.
Thanks for following along. Stay tuned for updates by following us on our social media channels below.
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